It is known to manufacture and commercially make available coreless rolls of toilet tissue, i.e. toilet tissue rolls which do not have a central core of paperboard or the like. In coreless toilet tissue rolls the innermost convolution of the toilet tissue web comprising the roll defines a central aperture which is considerably smaller in cross-section than the central aperture or opening of a core utilized in conventional toilet tissue rolls.
It will be appreciated that a great many dispenser cabinets are in existence which incorporate mechanisms designed and adapted for use with conventional toilet tissue rolls with cores. These include many dispenser cabinets for use in public washrooms and other institutional environs which allow sequential dispensing from a plurality of rolls deployed in the dispenser cabinets.
An example of the latter is the Model B-288 Contura Series toilet tissue dispenser made available by Bobrick Washroom Equipment, Inc. of Los Angeles, Calif. In that dispenser cabinet, a reserve toilet tissue roll with conventional tubular core is held by a spindle in an elevated, non-dispensing position within the dispenser cabinet, the ends of the spindle being located in two opposed, elongated, generally vertically oriented slots formed in the sides of the cabinet. A drop-down mechanism in the dispenser cabinet allows the spare or reserve roll to drop into position for use when the lower roll is used up.
The commercially available toilet tissue dispenser cabinet described above is not suitable for dispensing toilet tissue from coreless rolls nor can the spindles conventionally employed in the dispenser cabinet be inserted into and utilized to support coreless rolls of toilet tissue.
Although coreless roll spindles are known generally, the present invention encompasses support spindle apparatus of a specific construction which can be utilized in conjunction with a toilet tissue dispenser cabinet of the type identified above to retain a coreless toilet tissue roll in reserve or temporary storage position above the roll actually being dispensed for subsequent drop down and usage.
Applicant is aware of the following United States patents which are believed to be representative of the present state of the art in this field: U.S. Pat. No. 4,671,466, issued Jun. 9, 1987, U.S. Pat. No. 4,362,278, issued Dec. 7, 1982, U.S. Pat. No. 5,100,075, issued Mar. 31, 1992, U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,375, issued Jan. 11, 1994, U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,389, issued Aug. 22, 1978, U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,580, issued Sep. 12, 1972, U.S. Pat. No. 2,650,773, issued Sep. 1, 1953, U.S. Pat. No. 2,522,109, issued Sep. 12, 1950, U.S. Pat. No. 1,825,822, issued Oct. 6, 1931, U.S. Pat. No. Des. 340,375, issued Oct. 19, 1993; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 335,410; issued May 11, 1993; and Des. 312,179, issued Nov. 20, 1990. None of these patents disclose support spindle apparatus adapting a conventional multi-roll toilet tissue dispenser used to dispense toilet tissue from rolls having cores for use with coreless toilet tissue rolls.